What's That About Nutrition?

In the spirit of “just getting started” and “taking the leap” I thought I would take some time to go through my journey with food and self discovery over the past year or so. I won’t go into full detail (yet) about my hang ups with food and how it messed with my head for a long time here, but I promise to write that all out in a more detailed (and sourced) format very soon.

I’m sure you’ve heard that diet and nutrition are half the battle, or 80% or some other arbitrary number. You may have even heard of the protein sparing modified diet, the ketogenic diet, carb cycling, carb back loading, carb nite solution, lean gains, warrior diet and every other type of eating pattern or “diet” out there.

Let me be clear: just because Joe can eat 6 donuts a day and then go and squat 600 pounds while downing over 3000 calories and staying around 8% body fat doesn’t mean that Bob can do the same. Maybe Joe’s body just happens to love carbs and uses them for fuel better than Bob. Bob might be the type who can’t really get away with eating donuts on the regular, but maybe he can do alright with rolled oats, less carbs and more fat. Joe might be able to get away with eating so many donuts and carbs because he has his nutrient timing down to a tee. Bob may still need to figure out how many meals per day is optimal for him. How do we figure this stuff out, though?

Marc Lobliner can eat the shit out of some donuts and look like a badass.

It starts by doing what I told my mom to do for years, and that is: listening to your body.

When you’re training and you feel something pop and suddenly have pain, the logical thing to do would be to stop training and assess the problem so you don’t make the same mistake. Same thing with food, broz. You have to listen. Bloated? Gassy? Grumpy? Tired? Not sleeping well? Could be all that mac and cheese (I know, that shit is delicious!) or maybe you have a milk protein allergy or you’re deficient in a vitamin or mineral (or a few of them, like most average laypersons), or many other factors. You just won’t know until you consistently get certain aspects correct for a long enough time to see the result(s)..

My entire journey was a long one. I had been “skinny fat” for a long time and I was tired of it. So what did I do? I decided to try to cut bodyfat, lift weights, do cardio and things went well. For about two weeks. This happened consistently, for years. Everytime I would try to lose fat, I would do well for about 2 or 4 weeks, then fall off the wagon.

See, my body played tricks on me. It made me think it was stronger than my mind. And it was. For a while.

Dieting is about control. But it’s also about personal introspection and knowing your weaknesses. I had to evaluate myself. Why wasn’t I able to stick to the program for more than a few weeks before bingeing? I went on a quest to find out.

I read books. I watched YouTube videos. I took note of my triggers. I started getting more sleep. That cleared up some stress eating. I started eating more vegetables and fruits. That helped with some cravings. I played around with high fat, low carb. That made me binge. I switched to medium carb, medium fat. Now we’re getting somewhere....

But it was me being willing to experiment to finally find the formula that would lead me to success that worked. If you just do things willy nilly for the sake of just doing them, how do you ever know what worked or is working?

This meant logging my calories to make sure I was getting enough vitamins and minerals and supplementing with certain things. Manipulation is key to success when it comes to dieting.

If you’re on a quest to “lose weight” (and I sincerely hope by “lose weight” you mean lose body fat) then I strongly encourage you to start tracking your food intake. Actually, this is good if you’re trying to gain weight, too (not body fat, but lean mass) so you should track either way. Why? To find your maintenance caloric level. When you’re at maintenance caloric intake, you don’t gain weight or lose weight. This is important because it gives us a baseline on which to use for gaining or losing. Find this number and things get a bit easier, number wise. Takes out a lot of the guessing. (This number can, and should, shift over time, but we’re playing off the present here and not the future.)

Read some books and ask some questions. Find people willing and able to help you through the initial shit storm that will be a new lifestyle. It isn’t easy, but it’s simple. Eat less, move more. Eat less garbage, eat more veggies and solid protein sources. 

Find what works for you by being purposeful and intelligent about your approaches. Once you do that, you’re a step ahead.

This same sentiment rings true as far as training practices goes, but that’s another post for another day.

Ed Coan knows a thing or two about proper training.

See you in The DUNGEON